(Washington, DC) — Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton made the following statement regarding the Maryland Court of Appeals’ ruling in John Doe, et al., v. Maryland State Board of Elections(No. 02-C-11-163050) , a case that sought to deny Maryland voters an opportunity to consider “tuition benefits” for illegal alien students in the 2012 elections:

Maryland’s highest court today vindicated the people’s right to have their say at the ballot box about the issue of in-state tuition for illegal aliens.

Casa de Maryland failed in its attempt to quash the rights of Marylanders to vote on the upcoming referendum. The fate of the Maryland DREAM Act is now, as it should be, in the hands of the Maryland voters.

Arguments were presented to Court of Appeals yesterday, June 12, 2012. Two illegal aliens, several Maryland voters, and the activist group Casa de Maryland sought to reverse an overwhelmingly successful petition drive to put the Maryland DREAM Act on the ballot in 2012. Judicial Watch represented MDPetitions.com in the legal defense of its historic petition effort.

MDPetitions.com collected 132,071 signatures, nearly twice the amount required by law, in support of a petition to put on referendum SB 167 (the Maryland DREAM Act), a law signed by Governor Martin O’Malley on May 10, 2011, that will enable certain illegal aliens to pay reduced tuition rates at Maryland community colleges and public higher education institutions.